It is now possible to integrate molecular genetic data and approaches into a variety of research topics that demographers study, such as fertility, educational attainment, well-being and mortality. This course offers an introductory and accessible introduction for those interested in entering this exciting new area of research. After providing a primer of fundamental concepts, we then focus on hands-on computer based examples that focus on the practicalities of working with genetic data and using polygenic scores. We draw from the teaching materials from the new book aimed at social scientists, An Introduction to Statistical Genetic Data Analysis (https://mitpress.mit.edu/books/introduction-statistical-genetic-data-analysis).

With the increasing availability of data that has both demographic and genetic information, demographers are uniquely positioned to engage in this type of analysis. This is coupled with recent findings in the last 5 years that have uncovered a genetic basis for a variety of the topics demographers study including age at first birth, number of children ever born, childlessness, educational attainment, well-being, longevity and more. This workshop will ease PAA attendees into the basics of how to enter this exciting new field of research.

Course instructors

• Melinda C. Mills, Professor & Director Leverhulme Centre for Demographic Science, University of Oxford, UK
• Nicola Barban, Associate Professor, Institute for Social and Economic Research at the University of Essex, UK
• Felix Tropf, Assistant Professor at École Nationale de la Statistique et de L'administration Économique (ENSAE) and Center for Research in Economics and Statistics (CREST), Paris
• David Brazel, Senior Research Associate, University of Oxford, UK